MilitaryResistance 9H15 : Resistance Celebrates Afghan Independence Day

8/4/2019 MilitaryResistance 9H15 : Resistance Celebrates Afghan Independence Day

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Military Resistance: [email protected] 8.21.11 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

Military Resistance 9H15

Resistance Celebrates AfghanIndependence Day With Attack On

British Government Building:“The Attack Came On The Day That

Afghans Commemorate A 1919Treaty In Which The British EmpireRecognized The Full Independence

Of Afghanistan’s Kings”“The Bombs Shattered Windows

Hundreds Of Yards Away”

Aug. 20 Bloomberg L.P. [Excerpts]

Taliban guerrillas disguised as women attacked a British cultural center in Kabul, killingeight people and injuring 22, as Afghans marked their country’s full independence fromBritain.

mailto:[email protected]





Two early morning car bomb explosions jolted Kabul yesterday and raised a column ofblack smoke from the compound of the British Council, a U.K. government-backedcultural and educational organization.

Four Afghan police, along with two Afghan and two foreign security guards employed bythe center, were killed in the attack, the Afghan Interior Ministry said yesterday in an e-

mailed statement. None of the three British nationals involved were hurt, the U.K.Foreign Office said.

“Some insurgents managed to enter the compound after the first bomber detonated asmall truck packed with explosives in the entrance gate,” Interior Ministry spokesmanSediq Siddiqi said in a phone interview. A second explosion occurred as policesurrounded the compound.

A New Zealand special forces soldier died on his way to the hospital after being shot inthe chest by an insurgent while attempting to free people trapped in the council buildingsfollowing the attack, Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones toldreporters in Auckland today.

The four men were dressed in Burqas and wearing explosive vests and the battle startedas they entered the compound, the ministry said. The attackers barricaded themselvesinside the building and two were shot dead and two others blew themselves up after anextended firefight. The two other members of the six-strong insurgent team died whenthey detonated the car bombs.

The Taliban movement “targeted the British Council to mark our independence day,”Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said in a phone interview.

The attack came on the day that Afghans commemorate a 1919 treaty in which theBritish empire recognized the full independence of Afghanistan’s kings, after years of

military and political efforts to make Afghanistan part of the British Empire.

The bombs shattered windows hundreds of yards away in Kabul’s Kart-e-Parwan district,including at the home of a former foreign minister and presidential candidate AbdullahAbdullah, said Ali Farhad Howaida, an aide to Abdullah.

Two British female English language teachers were in the building with their bodyguardand locked themselves in a secure room, Martin Davidson, chief executive of the BritishCouncil, told reporters in London.

Davidson said the Council, which had been taken by “complete surprise” by the attack,will continue with its educational work in Afghanistan.

MORE:

New Zealand Soldier Killed During AttackOn British Building In Kabul

August 20, 2011 By Alastair Bull, AAP



New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says he accepts full responsibility for thedeployment of NZ troops in Afghanistan but he sees no need to end their service earlyafter the death of an SAS soldier.

The soldier died during an operation to rescue hostages at the British Council cultural

centre who had been attacked by the Taliban on the 92nd anniversary of Afghanistan’sindependence from Britain.

He was shot in the chest by an insurgent and died en route to hospital.

Lt Col Jones said the compound was attacked about 5.40am local time. A British unitresponded but could only isolate the area, and the CRU was authorised to deploy about8.20am and the SAS team about the same time.

“The focus of our SAS team was to rescue the UK members who were still on thecompound, whereas the CRU was focusing on eliminating the terrorists,” Lt Col Jonessaid. “At its peak, 100 CRU members were deployed so this was quite a significant

fight.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

U.S. Convoy Attacked In Baghdad

19 Aug 2011 Reuters

BAGHDAD - A U.S. convoy was targeted in the Mansour district, west-central Baghdad,on Wednesday night, but the attack was ineffective and there were no casualties ordamage, the U.S. military said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCEEND THE OCCUPATION

Resistance Action17 Aug 2011 Reuters & 19 Aug 2011 Reuters & 19 Aug 2011 Reuters

KIRKUK - Two roadside bombs targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen, insouthern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police sources said.



MOSUL - Armed men threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi army patrol and wounded twosoldiers, in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police sourcesaid.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol escorting a judge’s convoy killed onepoliceman and wounded another in eastern Mosul, a police source said.

KIRKUK - Insurgents opened fire on a police lieutenant colonel and seriously woundedhim in northern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

KIRKUK - A sticky bomb attached to the car of a police major exploded, wounding himand his wife in northern Kirkuk on Thursday, a source at the Kirkuk police informationcentre said.

MOSUL - An off-duty soldier was killed and three others were wounded when insurgentsopened fire on their car in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Insurgents stormed police officers’s houses in Abu Ghraib on the western

outskirts of Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding two civilians, late onWednesday, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a convoy of a police officer, killed onepoliceman and wounded another on Wednesday, in Baghdad’s eastern al-Ghadir district,a police source said.

TARMIYA - A car bomb targeting the house of Brigadier Tawfiq Ahmed, the police chiefof Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two of his bodyguards andwounded seven people on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said. (Compiled byBaghdad bureau)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Foreign Occupation “Servicemember”Killed Somewhere Or Other In

Afghanistan Thursday:

Nationality Not AnnouncedAugust 19, 2011 Reuters

A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack in easternAfghanistan yesterday.



Foreign Occupation “Servicemember”Killed Somewhere Or Other In

Afghanistan Friday:Nationality Not Announced

August 19, 2011 Reuters

A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack insouthern Afghanistan today.

Making The New York Times

“Despite The Fact That Our Country Is InThe Midst Of The Greatest Financial

Crisis It Has Been Involved In Since The1930s, And Cannot Even Begin To AffordThe Financial Cost Of These Wars, ThereIs No Military Cost Greater Than Those

Of The Lives Like That Of My Friend’s”August 10, 2011 By Ryan Boldrey, Our Colorado News

An old friend of mine made the front page of the Sunday New York Times.

His name wasn’t actually in print, because all of the families had not yet been contacted.

But he was one of the 22 Navy SEALs who died in what is being called the largest singleloss for American troops in the 10 years of these Godforsaken wars.

It was also without a doubt the single biggest loss felt in my hometown of Petoskey,

Mich., throughout the duration of these long, drawn-out wars that have many peoplequestioning what we are even still doing fighting.

Due to his own personal wishes that if something like this ever happened, he hadrequested that no media coverage memorialize his individual death even if it was in theform of a glowing tribute.



So after being contacted by close friends and family members, the local paper and TVstations in my hometown nixed all the stories that they were working on.

As well, after a few days a lot of the tributes that had gone up on Facebook in his honorwere pulled down in respect to his family.

For this reason, I will not mention him by name, but I will tell a little about him.

He graduated one year behind me in high school. We grew up playing sports together.

He was one of those people whose friendship saw no boundaries when it came to linesthat cliques tend to draw in the sand — especially at that age.

And he exhibited real friendship to all. You know, all those things people tend to saywhen they look at the good in an individual, usually when someone dies.

But this really was who he was. And for those reasons, it sort of made sense that hewound up where he did.

In 16 years of service, he went out on top, as part of the most elite class of warriors ourmilitary has, sacrificing his own life for what he believed was for the greater good ofeveryone back home. He always exhibited passion and commitment at everything hedid. And he wound up defending an entire country at the greatest cost of all.

Sadly, as with so many things these days, I found out through social media — eulogiesbusily pouring out of the finger tips of a great number of my friends the night before theNew York Times and every other major Sunday paper in the country ran a story on theirfront page.

Without question, he is missed by many. It’s indeed truly amazing how the loss of one

person affects so many.

This is something, though, that I have become well-versed in again as of late.

He was, after all, the fourth person I’ve known in a period of four weeks to leave thisearth at too young of an age.

He is the only one, however, who did not die of a terminal disease or natural causes.

War, my friends, is not a natural cause.

Now, the last thing I want to do is detract from the service that my friend gave our

country, or that anyone else has for that matter. I respect anyone who is brave enoughto don the uniform for the United States of America.

But as we look at the conflicts that we are currently involved in, specifically inAfghanistan — a country no longer even considered a terror threat to the U.S. — as wellas the fact that our military receives as much money as the next 15 largest militaries inthe world combined, perhaps it is time we consider going home.



After all, despite the fact that our country is in the midst of the greatest financial crisis ithas been involved in since the 1930s, and cannot even begin to afford the financial costof these wars, there is no military cost greater than those of the lives like that of myfriend’s.

“Long Before The Deadly CrashAug. 6, Military Officials Were

Well Aware Of The RisksRocket-Propelled Grenades

Pose To Helicopters”“There Have Been More Than 375Rotorcraft Losses, With More Than500 Fatalities Since October 2001”“The Majority Of Hostile-Fire LossesAre Attributable To Rocket-Propelled

Grenades And Man-Portable AirDefense Systems”

“Insurgents Were Eager To Shoot Down‘High-Payoff Targets,’ Specifically

Chinooks”

August 22, 2011 By Cid Standifer and Joe Gould, Army Times [Excepts]

Long before the deadly crash Aug. 6, military officials were well aware of the risksrocket-propelled grenades pose to helicopters.

According to numerous sources, there have been more than 375 rotorcraft losses, withmore than 500 fatalities since October 2001, the Joint Aircraft Suvivability ProgramOffice stated in a report to Congress last year.



Precise numbers are unavailable due to their sensitivity; however, the authors ofthe JASO report have said subsequently that the majority of hostile-fire losses areattributable to rocket-propelled grenades and Man-Portable Air Defense Systems,or MANPADS, which are infrared-guided, shoulder-launched surface-to-airmissiles.

RPGs can be purchased on the black market for as little as $150.

The controversial WikiLeaks database, released last year, has several field reportsabout helicopter attacks.

“Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone from an undisclosed location,” aWikiLeaks-reported February 2007 field memo from the public affairs office of CombinedJoint Task Force 82 quoted news sources as saying, “Taliban spokesman Yosuf Ahmadisaid the helicopter was hit with a missile. He said the chopper was attacked in HelmandProvince, but it came to the ground in Shah Joy district of Zabol. Ahmadi boasted ofmore such attacks as he said the Taliban had procured anti-aircraft missiles.”

Another Jan. 17, 2009, Task Force Thunder report in the Wiki-Leaks documents warnedthat insurgents were eager to shoot down “high-payoff targets,” specifically Chinooks.

In spite of the relative risks, the powerful and fast CH-47 has risen above its origins as acargo helicopter to become the aircraft of choice for transport, air assaults and cargomissions in Afghanistan due in large part to its superior ability to fly at high altitudes andits versatility, Army officials said.

According to Schloesser [retired Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the former director ofArmy aviation in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff] a veteran Chinook and specialoperations pilot, it is normal for a special operations unit to use a CH-47, adding that theconcentration of troops in a single aircraft was also normal.

“You’re trying to put the right kind of combat power on the objective and get them out ofthere as fast as possible,” he said. “Just because the Chinook’s big doesn’t mean it isn’tfast and easy to maneuver.” The CH-47’s cavernous interior and its superior powermargins would have allowed a large number of troops to gather on the battlefield atonce. By contrast, several Black Hawks would have been more vulnerable as eachadded and extracted troops, Schloesser said.

Chinooks and Black Hawks are equally vulnerable as they land because they must do soslowly, Schloesser said. He referenced the infamous loss of a special operationshelicopter during 1993’s Bat-tle of Mogadishu as an example.

“Go back to Mogadishu and ‘Black Hawk Down,’ and a hovering aircraft, or onetrying to put down fast-ropers is pretty darn vulnerable to RPGs, especially whenthey’re massed,” he said.

To mitigate risk, forces in Afghanistan have stayed away from routine supply schedulesfor fear that insurgents would use them to predict arrival times and attack.

“Our tactics, techniques and procedures stop them at a large rate, but we can’tstop all of them,” said



POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO HALTTHE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THEWARS

Resistance Action

8.17.11 Reuters & August 18, 2011 VOA News & 20 August 2011 TOLOnews

KABUL - Four guards for a private security company were killed in a firefight with Taliban

insurgents in the central Ghazni province, said Dawlat Khan, the head of the Watan RiskPrivate Security Company, where they worked.

KABUL - A missile landed in the centre of the capital Kabul in the early hours ofWednesday morning, hurting no one, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

At least two Afghan troop was killed and 12 others were wounded in a mine blast inwestern Herat province, local officials said. The blast happened at 7:00 am local time asAfghan forces were passing the area and a mine exploded in Kalab area of Herat city,Sayed Aqa Saqib, police chief told TOLOnews reporter.

Three Afghan policemen were killed in a roadside bomb blast in western Herat province

on Friday morning. The incident happened when their vehicle was struck by a roadsidebomb in Shindand district of Herat, Muhaiyuddin Noori, spokesman for Herat governortold TOLOnews reporter. Four other policemen were wounded in the incident, and weretaken to a nearby hospital in the city, he added.

Two security guards were killed when a bomber detonated a truck full of explosivesoutside a U.S.-run provincial reconstruction team base in Gardez, in the easternprovince of Paktia. Several others were injured in the blast. The Taliban claimedresponsibility for the attack, saying a 70-year-old militant carried out the bombing.

Collaborator Cops And Soldiers KillEach Other

August 18, 2011 VOA News



Local officials in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province say a shootout betweenAfghan army and police officers Wednesday evening left three officers dead and at leastfive civilians wounded in the crossfire.

Afghan officials say they are investigating the cause of the fight.

Troops Invited:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from servicemen and women, and veterans, are especially welcome.Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email to [email protected]:Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.

MILITARY NEWS

THIS IS HOW OBAMA BRINGS THEM HOME:ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE





ARLINGTON, VA - AUGUST 09: The funeral of Army Spc. Jordan C. Schumann of PortSaint Lucie, Florida, at Arlington National Cemetery. Spc. Schumann, who was

assigned to the 709th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, 21st TheaterSustainment Command, died July 5 in Paktia province, Afghanistan, of injuries sufferedfrom an improvised explosive device. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

GOT AN OPINION?



Comments from service men and women, and veterans, areespecially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, NewYork, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send to [email protected]:Name, I.D., withheld unless you request identification published.

“Its Hateful And Evil”“It’s Our Assertion That Sgt.

Kirkland Did Not Kill Himself”He Was Killed By “The Chain Of

Command Who Exhibited SuchCallous Disregard For His Life”Kirkland “Urged Active Military MembersWho Are Dealing With PTSD Symptoms

To Refuse Deployment To The WarZone—As He Did”

Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, widow of U.S. Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann,wipes away tears while explaining how her husband shot himself to death three weeksago in a training area of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Hagemann, who reportedly wasdiagnosed earlier with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, was scheduled to be re-





deployed to Afghanistan and his ninth combat tour of duty in seven years. Credit SteveFetbrandt

Kirkland was sent home midway through his second tour in Iraq for putting ashotgun in his mouth.

A Madigan Army Medical Center psychologist diagnosed him as low-risk forsuicide and he was assigned to a barracks room by himself.

He hanged himself less than 48 hours later.

August 13, 2011 By Steve Fetbrandt, Lakewood Patch [Excerpts]

Tears and accusations flowed heavily at a Lakewood coffee-house Friday as current andformer soldiers and loved ones condemned the U.S. military and government forignoring service-connected mental-health problems.

Hosted by the Coffee Strong Internet Café on Union Avenue in Tillicum, the event drew

a few dozen community members to a panel discussion featuring members of the“March Forward” advocacy group, which has been rallying for an end to the war inAfghanistan and better health-care treatment of returning service members andveterans.

Among the seven speakers were four veterans, one active-duty serviceman, the wife ofa recent military suicide victim and the mother of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Derrick Kirkland,23, a two-time combat veteran who hung himself in his barracks at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March 2010.

Kirkland was sent home midway through his second tour in Iraq for putting ashotgun in his mouth. He also attempted suicide during a layover in Germany.

A Madigan Army Medical Center psychologist diagnosed him as low-risk forsuicide and he was assigned to a barracks room by himself.

He hanged himself less than 48 hours later.

“March Forward” co-founder Kevin Baker accused the military Friday of paying lipservice to — and even mocking — soldiers like Kirkland, who have suffered combat-related mental illness.

“We’re demanding justice for Sgt. Kirkland…and also for every single active-duty servicemember and veteran…and for the rights of those in the military who’ve yet to be

deployed and traumatized,” he said.

“It’s our assertion that Sgt. Kirkland did not kill himself,” Baker said.

“He was killed by the Army’s criminally inadequate mental health services and bythe chain of command who exhibited such callous disregard for his life.”



Baker, who served with Kirkland and left the military in December, urged activemilitary members who are dealing with PTSD symptoms to refuse deployment tothe war zone—as he did.

“I wouldn’t consider that mutiny if the military isn’t capable of providing soldiers with thehelp that they need,” he said. “They (service members) have a unique responsibility to

stand in solidarity with each other.”

Baker said drastic change is needed both in the military and Veterans Administration toproperly address service-connected mental illness. His group plans to continue rallyingpublic support for that change, he said.

Military officials were not immediately available for comment Friday night. However, twomilitary investigations following Kirkland’s death found no wrongdoing by his superiors.

Yet Kirkland’s mother, Mary Corkhill Kirkland of Indianapolis, said the Army has failed inits responsibility to protect her son and other U.S. troops from harm.

“Rumor has it that there have been at least eight other suicides at Ft. Lewis in the 17months since my son’s death,” she said. “I just want the public to tell the Army, `Yourprograms are failing.’ Our loved ones are still committing suicide.”

The number of suicides could not be confirmed immediately.

Corkhil Kirkland also accused the military of sweeping the suicide problem under thecarpet.

In reading her son’s death announcement from an Indiana newspaper to Friday’saudience, she noted the Defense Department was quoted as saying her son had been“killed in action” and that “the family declined to comment publicly.”

“I just met another wife whose husband committed suicide after the Army implementedtheir new (suicide prevention) program,” Corkhill Kirkland said.

That wife, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, was also part of Friday’s panel discussion,recounting the death of her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, three weeksago.

Wiping away tears, Joppa-Hagemann said her husband went into some bushes ina training area at JBLM and fatally shot himself in the head.

The seven-year Ranger, who had been diagnosed earlier with PTSD, was

scheduled to be re-deployed on his ninth combat tour of duty and had sworn anoath that he would not go.

In addition to his widow, he left behind two young children.

The Army has refused to give Hagemann a memorial service, his wife said, because itdoes not want the news media drawing more attention to service-connected suicides.



[Reader’s Comment:]

“In Iraq He Asked To Speak With A Chaplain And Was Immediately Thrown IntoSolitary Confinement, Stripped Of All Belongings He Might Use To Harm Himself,

And Forbidden To Call Me For Two Weeks” dianne2:50pm on Saturday, August 13, 2011

They have plenty of programs to try to help soldiers BUT soldiers are unwilling to ask forthe help they need because they know that they will be ridiculed and their jobs will be in

jeopardy!

My husband avoided mental health treatment for almost a year after he got backfrom Iraq despite multiple flashback episodes (including one while driving whichnearly took us off the road) and night terrors.

He did this because while he was in Iraq he asked to speak with a chaplain andwas immediately thrown into solitary confinement, stripped of all belongings hemight use to harm himself, and forbidden to call me for two weeks.

All because he wanted to talk to a chaplain on Sunday.

Its hateful and evil.

I was at the event on Friday and they said it many times “If you come back from acountry of death and distruction and DONT feel bad there is something wrongwith YOU”

MORE:

After 8 Deployments, ArmyRanger Kills Himself:

“Jared Tried To Come To GripsWith What He’d Seen And Done”He Said “There’s No Way That AnyGod Would Forgive Him - That He

Was Going To Hell”“She Said The Rangers Never Took His

Pleas For Help Seriously”



[Thanks to Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against The War & Military Resistance

Organization, and Clancy Sigal, who sent this in.]

Aug 12, 2011 By Keith Eldridge, KOMO News [Excerpts]

JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier’s widow says his fellow ArmyRangers wouldn’t do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eightdeployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann’s body at a training area of Joint BaseLewis McChord a few weeks ago.

A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still

undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann’s widow says her husband took his own life -and it didn’t need to happen.

“It was just horrible. And he would just cry,” says Ashley Hagemann.

Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he’d seen and done onhis eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“And there’s no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell,” saysAshley. “He couldn’t live with that any more.”

Ashley says her Army Ranger husband wanted out of the military.

“He just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal again,” she says.

Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan this month for a ninth tour ofduty.

Instead, on June 28, Ashley says her husband took a gun and shot himself in the headon base.



She said the Rangers never took his pleas for help seriously.

“There’s no way that they should not have been able to pick up on it,” Ashley says.“When he’s telling them, he’s reaching out ....”

ANNIVERSARIES

August 21, 1831:Honorable Anniversary:

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Carl Bunin, Peace History Aug 21-27

August 21, 1831

Nat Turner, a 30-year-old man legally owned by a child, and six other slaves began aviolent insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia.

They began by killing the child’s stepfather, Joseph Travis, and their family. Within the

next 24 hours, Turner and ultimately about 40 followers killed the families of adjacentslaveholding properties, nearly 60 whites, while freeing and inciting other slaves to jointhem.

Militia and federal troops were called, and the uprising was suppressed with 55 AfricanAmericans including Turner executed by hanging, and hundreds more killed by whitemobs and vigilantes in revenge.



August 21, 1991:Afghanistan War Veterans Who

Died To Defeat A Dictatorship:“Komar Assured His Parents He Had

Suffered Enough In Combat AndWould Stay Off The Streets, His

Mother Recalls”“But He Changed His Mind When Fellow

Veterans Of The Soviet War InAfghanistan Rallied To Mr. Yeltsin’s

Side”

A bus burned near the Soviet Foreign Ministry as protesters and Soviet soldiers arguedin Moscow on Aug. 21, 1991. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press

AUGUST 18, 2011 By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Wall Street Journal [Excerpts]

MOSCOW—They died in an epic struggle against Soviet rule and were proclaimedheroic martyrs of a free Russia.

Huge crowds glimpsed the three coffins, draped in the emerging nation’s tricolor flag andhonored by its new anthem.



“Our defenders, our saviors,” the breakaway leader, Boris Yeltsin, told the mourners thatday in August 1991. “From now on, their names are sacred.”

Today, Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky and Vladimir Usov are all but forgotten—obscuredby deep disillusionment with the political and economic chaos that for many Russiansdefined Mr. Yeltsin’s attempt at democratic rule in the 1990s.

Russia’s current leaders, who have reimposed a large dose of authoritarian control,speak nothing of the three men and little about the event that consumed them — a last-gasp Communist coup, 20 years ago this weekend, to salvage rigid Soviet rule.

That leaves their relatives and a few hundred stalwarts each year to commemorate theelectrifying days when the three men helped turn back the Soviet tanks and changehistory’s course.

Dmitry Komar, a 22-year-old mechanic, learned of the coup on the radio.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s top military and secret police officials, concluding

that his reforms would destroy the union, detained Mr. Gorbachev at his dacha andannounced that a State of Emergency committee had taken control.

As resistance swelled, Mr. Komar assured his parents he had suffered enough incombat and would stay off the streets, his mother recalls.

But he changed his mind when fellow veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistanrallied to Mr. Yeltsin’s side. “That brotherhood meant a lot to him,” LyubovKomara says.

The night of Aug. 20, the former paratrooper triggered what many consider a pivotalspasm of bloodshed.

A column of 20 armored vehicles had moved along Moscow’s ring road near Mr.Yeltsin’s headquarters and met a barricade formed by two trolley buses in an underpass.

Mr. Komar leapt onto the lead tank but fell, dangling head down, his feet caught on thevehicle. As the tank moved back and forth, ramming the barricade, Mr. Komar hit thepavement and was crushed.

Vladimir Usov, a 37-year-old businessman, had been watching through binoculars fromhis office. He went to the underpass, where he tried to rescue the dangling Mr. Komar.He was shot in the head and crushed under the same tank.

An enraged crowd set fire to the tank, its crew firing warning shots as they fled.Ilya Krichevsky, a 28-year-old architect and Afghan war veteran, took a bullet inthe forehead.

The deaths of the three, drawn to the same spot without knowing each other,emboldened the resistance.

Wary of further bloodshed, the coup plotters gave up the next day.



Ilya Krichevsky Dmitry Komar Vladimir Usov

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK



CLASS WAR REPORTS

The Verizon Strike:“I’m Shocked By The Solidarity

From Other Workers”“It’s A Very Different Attitude

Existing In This Society Compared To

The 1980s And ‘90s”“We’re Their Horse In This Race”

August 15, 2011 Socialist Worker. A member of Communications Workers of AmericaLocal 1106 reports on the first week of the Verizon strike. [Excerpts]



Ben Dalbey, Paul Hubbard, Gary Lapon, Bill Linville, Chris Murphy and Sherry Wolfcontributed to this article.

**********************************************************************************************

ONE WEEK into the strike by 45,000 members of Communications Workers of America

(CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electricians (IBEW), Verizon has shownexactly how nasty it plans to fight.

Verizon has launched an offensive of media lies and legal attacks to undermine publicsupport and hobble union mobilizations. Full-page ads and court injunctions againstpickets came fast and furious this week, infuriating strikers and their supporters.

But union members are determined not to let the company dictate the terms of this fight.Striking locals are taking a three-pronged approach to the battle.

The first prong is the traditional picket line at workplaces, where strikers heckle anddelay management and scabs as they enter and leave.

Second is following the work--literally following scab trucks as they go from job to job,and picketing where they work: poles, manholes, terminals and customer premises.

Mobile picketing has been used since 1989 to harass and embarrass under-trainedmanagers, who sometimes just give up and leave.

Third is picketing Verizon Wireless (VZW) retail stores, which are technically part of thestrike--though only 50 of the more than 50,000 VZW employees are covered under thecollective bargaining agreement.

Mass pickets at large workplaces have numbered more than 500 workers at times. A

lunchtime rally of CWA Local 1101 members at Verizon’s headquarters at 140 West St.in Lower Manhattan overflowed sidewalks, causing traffic delays. More than 500members of Local 1106 flooded the quiet streets of Springfield Gardens, Queens, almostknocking down a metal fence surrounding a Verizon garage in response to managementbullying of pickets.

Members have also taken it upon themselves at times to stand down individual trucks asthey leave to work.

Replacement workers, who are often out-of-state managers rushed through training,have been seen using ladders upside down, failing to figure out how to open terminals,and almost falling off poles.

Mobile pickets jeer and humiliate them, often drowning out test tones, making the jobimpossible.

But most satisfying have been the VZW pickets, which have tapped into the widespreadanti-corporate sentiment on the street.

Loud crowds numbering 50 or more have impeded business or outright shut downstores.



In New York, the Manhattan 34th Street store had to close for the day because ofrelentless chanting.

For two days running, the Astoria, Queens, location had to lock its doors to stopsupportive pedestrians from holding doors open while picketers with a bullhorn and

sound system chanted, sang and made speeches to disrupt business.

In Massachusetts, the presence of CWA Local 1400 picketers kept one location emptyfor three days.

In every case, passersby have honked, cheered, given the thumbs up or stopped to joinchanting and asked how to lend their support. Verizon management’s claim that “no onewill support overpaid union members” is clearly not true.

“Over Two Dozen Strikers Were Hit By Verizon Trucks In The First Week--AHandful Of Them Wound Up In The Hospital”

The company returned fire at the first opportunity--using the courts to try to stop theunions.

First came an injunction in Pennsylvania after strikers allegedly chained a work locationdoor shut.

Then injunctions in Delaware, New York and now New Jersey. These court orders limitthe number of pickets in most places to between six and 50 people, depending on thesize of the workplace, and they require pickets to stay 15 feet from entrances or exits.

Bizarrely, some injunctions attempt to ban the presence of pets or children--

apparently anything that would humanize the strikers and get sympathy.

This legal offensive will undoubtedly reverse what had so far been an often-friendlyatmosphere among strikers and police. Despite supportive sentiments from individualcops--including advice about how to avoid being charged with harassment by scabs--thelaw is coming down hard on the side of Verizon. And the company is pushing for aninterpretation of the law that limits unions as much as possible.

The company also knows that, even with its legal advantages, if the public turns onthem, they could lose. So they’re stacking the deck with an ad campaign depicting unionmembers as greedy--and possibly criminals. One ad claims that technicians make$91,000 a year with $50,000 in benefits and four weeks of vacation--which would only be

possible if a worker did 200 hours of overtime at top pay and had more than 15 years onthe job.

Another ad offers a $50,000 reward for anyone found sabotaging Verizon equipment--anot-too-subtle suggestion that strikers are vandals.

But it’s management that’s responsible for injuring strikers time and again.



Over two dozen strikers were hit by Verizon trucks in the first week--a handful ofthem wound up in the hospital.

With tensions rising, strikers will need to think strategically about the legal challenges--and when and how to break the law with mass mobilizations and civil disobedience toconfront the company--especially if the trickle of scabs increases to a more serious level.

Verizon might be willing to take some hits on service for a while, but it could eventuallydecide to try to permanently replace union members. In that case, confronting scabs toshut down production will be back on the table.

With the company’s overall workforce now majority nonunion, CWA and IBEW membersneed to see workers at VZW as potential allies and future union brothers and sisters. Weneed to turn the tide back toward a majority union company. Many (if not all) in-storetechnical workers will lose their jobs at the end of the month when the companyreorganizes tech support, so there has never been a better time to demonstrate thebenefits a union can provide.

Unions also need to go back to the tactics from 1989 and encourage customers not to

pay their bills in solidarity with the strike. Now, with online billing, the company has arock-solid income--but a campaign of de-enrolling in Easy Pay by the union could makewaves. The 45,000 union members themselves are customers, with connections toliterally hundreds of thousands of other households.

In addition, we need to highlight the toll Verizon’s greed is taking on our families. Notonly are strikers losing pay, but on August 30, we lose our health care. Rallies withchildren and dependent family members could expose the blatant greed of a profitablecompany depriving thousands of people of necessary care.

Besides reaching out to VZW and the public, we need to focus on the kind of aggressive,disruptive tactics that can win this strike. The outcome of this strike is unwritten, but the

pieces are there for an important victory for labor.

“The Company Has Hired Managers Who Don’t Know The Work But OnlyKnow How To Pressure Us To Meet Numbers”

THROUGHOUT NEW York City, picket lines have been strong and spirits high duringthe first week of the strike--boosted by visits from teachers, transit workers and otherunion and non-union supporters.

Strikers also report that UPS drivers, members of the International Brotherhood ofTeamsters, have refused to cross picket lines, forcing UPS to send managers out to

deliver to Verizon stores.

“I’m shocked by the solidarity from other workers,” said Pete D’Esposito, a CWA Local1101 chief steward at the 13th Street building in Manhattan.

“It’s a very different attitude existing in this society compared to the 1980s and ‘90s.We’re their horse in this race.”



Some workers emphasized that Verizon can’t claim poverty in the same way as stategovernments demanding concessions from public-sector workers.

“Everyone else is cutting back, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps,” said Kim,another 1101 chief steward. “That’s not the case here. It’s a prime example of corporategreed.”

Other strikers drew connections with the wider labor movement. Nicole, a New York CityVerizon worker for 11 years, said, “If you break one union, you break them all. You startshifting the work into cheaper countries. The middle class and the working class are thebackbone of this country.”

Unlike most American workers, many CWA and IBEW members have ample strikeexperience, since their unions have struck Verizon six times in the past 30 years.Laverne Sparrow, a 30-year veteran, talked about how “the 1989 strike was very hard--17 weeks--but the union really fought and hung together. We got a great contract out ofit.”

Local 1101 chief steward Dominic Renda described the 2000 strike: “Technicians set upflying pickets to follow around scabs doing installation work or repairs. They would tellthe customers that the person showing up to do work was a scab. Many times, thecustomers would refuse to allow the scab to do work or repairs.”

As in many strikes, workers on the picket line talked to supporters not just about thedisputed issues in the contract, but also about the many ways their job has gotten harderand more pressured in recent years. Call center workers complained about managementpressure to limit phone calls to four minutes, which often makes genuine customerservice impossible.

“The company has hired managers who don’t know the work but only know how

to pressure us to meet numbers,” said Lana, a customer service representativefrom Forest Hills and member of CWA Local 1105.

“We’re supposed to overcome objections from customers to get them to buy moreproducts. Right now, I have a problem with my own Verizon account, but I’m afraid tocall because these people have no idea what they’re doing.”

At every picket line, Verizon workers warmly welcomed supporters and urged them toreturn and bring others.

“We want people to bring their families and friends to build up the picket line,” saidRenda. “We don’t want people to cross. The stronger our presence, the more likely we

will be able to convince people not to cross the picket line. I’m encouraging members todo more than the minimum number of hours.”

In other cities where Verizon workers are striking--along the East Coast fromMassachusetts to Virginia--they are also finding support for their struggle.

-- In Providence, R.I., a striker explained, “This is a fight for working families--this is afight for our livelihoods. Everyone should have a union and the benefits we have.”



David Robitaille, a Verizon worker who was laid off in 2008, said, “In 2008, they had bigprofits. Yet they laid off 13,000 workers across the country. They said that with (fiberoptic service), they were going to keep the call centers in the U.S. Yet they have openedup one in Tijuana and one in India.”

Members of the Rhode Island community showed their solidarity by going to the picket

line from a Jobs Not Cuts rally held at the statehouse earlier in the day.

-- At a picket line in Baltimore, several retired CWA members, concerned about keepingtheir health care, turned out. A 12-year veteran of Verizon walked the line with her 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, with a homemade placard reading, “Union BustingIs a No-No.”

Three generations of women from the same family were walking the picket line. Workerswere ready for a serious fight, and some said that their managers told them to clean outtheir desks when the strike began. One woman said that she had been trying to preparefor this strike for the last year by filing grievances and building solidarity in herworkplace.

British Imperial GovernmentSending Irish Nationalists ToPrison Without Charges Or

Trail:“They Aren’t Charged With Any

Crime, And No Reason ForOrdering Them Back To PrisonExcept That They’re A ‘SecurityRisk’ Or A ‘Danger To Society’”

[Faced With This Naked Dictatorship,The Uprising Against It Burning

Through England Last Week Was NotMerely Right, But Necessary]



[The More The Sooner The Better]

August 18, 2011 By Sandy Boyer, Socialist Worker

AFTER 40 years, internment without charge or trial has returned to Northern

Ireland.

In August 1971, the British army picked up and imprisoned 342 men who were believed,often erroneously, to be key members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

They were never charged with any crime, but they could only be released by acommittee that met in secret and gave no reason for its decisions.

Today, it is former political prisoners who are being interned.

Their “licenses”--known as parole in the U.S.--are being revoked by a British cabinetminister, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

They aren’t charged with any crime, and he has given no reason for ordering themback to prison except that they’re a “security risk” or a “danger to society.”

Their cases can be reviewed by a commission appointed by the same minister.

The prisoner can present evidence, but this is essentially meaningless since theyhave never been told why they’re in prison in the first place.

The commission can meet in secret.

The only reason they need to give for refusing to release a prisoner is that he or

she is a “danger to society.”

At present, the commission is refusing to release a republican political prisoner, BrendanLillis, because it has deemed him “danger to society.”

Lillis, whose license was revoked in 2009, suffers from a bone disease that has fused hisspine. He hasn’t been able to get out of bed in nearly two years and will probably neverwalk again.

Severely anorexic, this six-foot-tall man now weighs less than 80 pounds, and there arefears that he may die.

But the commission still says Brendan Lillis is a “danger to society” who must not bereleased.

Another political prisoner, Martin Corey, has no idea why he is back in prison.

He was imprisoned for IRA activity in December 1973 when he was 19 years old.He was released in June 1992, returned home, established a business and formedan ongoing relationship. He became a highly respected member of his localcommunity in Lurgan, County Aramgh.



In the early hours of April 16, 2010, almost 18 years after his original release, thepolice appeared at Martin Corey’s door and took him away to prison.

He wasn’t charged with any crime and wasn’t told what, if anything, he wassupposed to have done.

He was simply informed that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland hadrevoked his license because he was a “security risk.”

More than a year later, Martin Corey is still interned.

He was recently told that he’ll be in prison for at least another year because hisapplication for release has been denied, and he can’t reapply until next year.

Corey is a member of Republican Sinn Fein, a legal political party throughoutIreland.

It is opposed to the present power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland because itbelieves the administration perpetuates British rule.

This can be used to justify Martin Corey’s internment because he is a “dissidentrepublican” and “a threat” to the Northern Ireland peace process.

Marian Price, the only woman political prisoner in Northern Ireland, was interned in May.She had appeared in court on a charge of “encouraging support for an illegalorganization.”

The judge granted her bail, but the police detained her before she could evenleave the courthouse.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland revoked her license from a conviction datingback to 1973.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, the minister said that she posed a threat that had“significantly increased” in recent times. Price is a leading member of the 32 CountySovereignty Movement that believes that only an armed struggle can end British rule inIreland.

She is in solitary confinement in an otherwise all-male prison. There are seriousconcerns about her health. Imprisoned in Britain in 1973, Price went on hunger strikeand was force-fed more than 200 times. After she was returned to Northern Ireland,

Price developed severe anorexia nervosa and was freed by the British governmentbecause they were afraid she was about to die. Today, she is suffering from cripplingrheumatoid arthritis.

There are probably hundreds of former political prisoners in Northern Ireland who havebeen released on license. Any one of them could be interned indefinitely at any time forany reason.



Ending internment and freeing the prisoners won’t be easy or quick. It will only be wonby a movement that brings together everyone who is willing to support political prisoners,whether or not they agree with them politically.

Eamonn McCann, the Irish socialist leader who was one of the organizers of the civilrights movement in Northern Ireland, recently addressed a meeting called to support the

prisoners:

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